holy fuckin shit a tattoo

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My 18 Y0 son…the one that scored 25 on the ACT…a smart beautiful kid ( in my eyes anyway) came home tonight with a fucking big ass tattoo on his upper arm. I am just freakin crushed. Maybe I am making too big a deal outa of it. But I just can’t help feeling like shit about it. De fucking pressed. At least it can’t be seen when he wears a shirt.

I don’t know about tattoo’s anymore, but when I was a kid they just screamed "hey I’m a drunken sailor and I got this tattoo!! Or “hey I am not man enough so I got this friggin tattoo to show how tough I am.”

I told him that sometimes there are stigmas attached to tattoos by the public along with all the other things I didn’t like about it, but hell it was a moot point. The tatoo is there permanent. Shit shit.

Do I just have an old timey attitude about it? Is there something about the new generation that I don’t understand?? Is it not that big of a deal anymore to have a tattoo? I remember Lee Trevino wore a bandaid over his for many years when playing golf on TV until he got the money to have it removed. How much does it cost to have one removed??? Shit fire…I don’t mean to trivialize my disappointment about it by posting it here but I sure would like some other people’s thoughts about it. I don’t think I am too good to have a tattoo, they just haven’t been my families thing for the last few generations…Damnation…

Yours truly,
aha

2

He had a big ass tattooed on his arm? Yep, I’d worry.

3

Sorry for the lame joke aha – but what is the tattoo? Is it something nice (like the word “Mom”, with some flowers) or is it something stupid?

Sounds like you have a great kid who maybe gave in to a little peer pressure. But at least it won’t be hard to cover up.

There was a segment on 60 Minutes (or something like that) awhile back on tattoo removal. Time consuming, painful and expensive, according to them.

4

I’m surprised Trevino had to save up the money to get it removed. IIRC, it’s pricey, but not near as pricey as other cosmetic surgery. About 7 or 8 years ago I had laser surgery to remove a birthmark on my neck (going through several years of school hearing about your “hickey” every days is NOT fun).

I understand your frustration. I don’t think they look particularly attractive myself, and even at your son’s age, I was not tempted in the LEAST to get one. I understood that what I liked then probably wouldn’t be what I liked a few years later.

I don’t think they have quite the stigma attached to them that they used to. Still, there’s something there. Every time I see someone with a tattoo, I can’t help thinking three things :

  1. Beer
  2. Trailer Park
  3. Bar Fight

I understand that not all people who have tattoos fit this criteria, but it’s just one of those things I can’t help thinking, you know?

I am the user formerly known as puffington.

5

Just from personal experience, it doesn’t mean a thing, as long as it can be hidden under clothing for appropriate occasions. I have two, but you would never know under a shirt and tie. Besides, I think it is more accepted now than it was a few (10?) years ago.

The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera

6

That’s ok Auntie…no its a round wheel with jagged edges on the inside. It stinks but I feel some better after reading squee’s
post. I guess I am just going to have to let time take care of the disappointment I am feeling… :frowning:

Yours truly,
aha

7

I’ve never actually connected tattoos with any particular social group. That sort of thing is being phased out as more and more people are getting tattoos. It’s a valid form of expression as far as I’m concerned, and a nice tattoo is damn cool. I really don’t think you have too much to worry about, at least as far as people thinking less of your son because he has a tattoo(especially if it’s an easily coverable one). The school that I attend nearly single handedly keeps the local tattoo shop in business, and it’s not exactly a low end college. All in all, you may not really approve, but it’s really not that big of a deal anymore. (and later on if he decides that he doesn’t want it anymore, he can always have it removed)

Still later, Gerald did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan.

8

I have to admit, the BIG BAD BOOTY DADDY doesn’t have a tatoo (no piercings too^^all natural), the fact that they’re a “bitch to get rid of” drives me away from getting one. They do, by the way, have a tatoo removal procedure using a laser–kinda expensive and it takes multiple sessions. I have also noticed people that once they get their first tatoo they get addicted to them and a few years later they have ten or twenty of them. I don’t think they’re appealing. The worst place you could put a tatoo on is the face, but I see them from time to time.

9

I remember that the Dr at Fort Des Moines had one. First of all I thought Wow Pretty Fucking Stupid DR. This was one time When I was sent up for a physical. I guess that he saw me looking at it trying to figure what it was. He pulled up his sleeve and said.“You can have one if you want” I told him that I didn’t want one and can’t figure why anyone else would either. End of conversation.
This was the sixties you know. Viet Nam Love Beads Sex Love Drugs. None of the problems of today.

Now I work with a new generation of idiots that think they are carrying around a piece of art. Well what if someone wants to buy that artwork and display it in their castle in Transilvania or Bumfuck Egypt. Not only that The stupid artist didn’t even sign it.

Don’t know what I would do if my son brought one home. Several of his buddies have impressed themselves with one
.

10

Totally uniformed opinion here…

I don’t think tattoos carry the “lowlife tough” connotations they used to. They got adopted by trendy “hardass lite” celebrity types and the whole schtick slipped from tough stance into fashion statement.

My reservations about tattoos rest mostly on the cyclical nature of fads and fashions. Betcha it won’t be very long before unmarked skin is valued and tattoos are “so yesterday”. Problem is, it’s one thing to look at a picture of hopelessly dorky clothes that felt so totally, wonderfully cool at the time. It’s another to have yesterday’s dorkiness inked into skin.

My guess is that, at worst, your fine son will in time wish he hadn’t done it. But it’s a coverable skin decoration, not a blot on his character. He’s old enough to make his own decisions and young enough that some of them will be clunkers.

It’s done, it’s a fact so might as well accept it with what grace you can. If he starts yearning for facial tattoos then you lock him in the basement and call the deprogrammers.

Veb

11

Wow but aren’t YOU a judgemental asshole! Why not just get rid of all forms of personal expression? How about we adopt a “National Haircut” and “National Uniform” and try to be as identical as possible?

The first thing I thought when I read your post was “wow, what a stupid, closed-minded person!”

To the OP, I’d say just learn to cope with it. Yes you’re being old fashioned and really, it isn’t your business. With any luck, your generation of opinionated and pre-judging elitists will die out soon.

–
From an actual catalog" “Disco balls create an enchanting, dazzling effect of light shafts, adding movement and glamour to any occasion”
the Abrams’ bris was certainly memorable
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

12

Have you heard of the “tattoo to teeth ratio” theory? People who work in hospital emergency rooms have a theory that the higher the ratio of tattoos to teeth the tougher and more likely the patient is to survive the most brutal beating or stabbing or overdose.

13

Wow, al, way to cheer up a mom, there!

Aha, don’t worry about it. Just don’t. Your son may have gotten it on the spur of the moment, or he may have thought about it long and hard. One thing I know is this: it probably didn’t make him feel good to come home with a tatto and hear his mom say “are stigmas attached to tattoos by the public along with all the other things I didn’t like about it”. 1) There aren’t, any more, they’re just another thing, like clothes or hair dye, just a sort of “Hi, I’m here!” kind of thing, 2) Does it really matter?

Hmm. It’s late, and I’m still buzzing offa those beers. I think I’ll stop before I say something I REALLY regret.

I’ll finish with this: aha, your son seems to be going through the phase wherein he grows up and acheives his own identity. Be proud and supportive. People learn by doing, not be being told.

I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.

14

Well personally I would say you have an old timey attitude. But, however, you being his parent do have the right to be upset about this. Although, he is 18, and in California at least, that makes him an adult (how mature is he mentally?). My parents told me before I got mine that it was my descision, and the only person who had to live with that choice was myself.

Also, my tattoos don’t scream “tough guy” actually the idea behind them would be considered pansy by some i’m sure. If you saw me I dont think you would see me as a thug at all. Times change, and so have the attitudes abut tattoos. I’ve gone around town with mine showing and no one’s pulled their children away, or sneered, or crossed to the other side of the street. I think that most people are starting to realize that no, a tattoo does not aurtomatically make you a thug, or a roughneck.

I didn’t get my tattoos to be popular or attract attention (you can’t even see them normally, and my leg tattoo is only visible when i wear shorts which is not often). Hell, at my school no one thinks twice about it, and after they notice it, it doesn’t stick out in people’s minds much anymore.

Oh also, the laser removal is going to be far more expensive than his tattoo. It’s also a lot more painful (like constantly being snapped by a rubber band, hard). I believe it’s something like $2,000 a square inch.

Another thing: I don’t know if your state/country considers him an adult yet, but I think it’s time to let him be his own person (he is after all 18). I realize you are dissappointed, and hey, what parent wouldn’t be if their child went out under their nose and got something that permanent? The only one who will have to live with the consequences of this is your son. Since it seems like an impulse buy, he may actually regret getting it sometime in the future. In the least, at least it’s easily covered by clothing. Be grateful he didnt get a facial tattoo…

I myself am an incorrigible conlang slut. I love oral lex.

15

Hmm, what makes me think they’ll be replaced by another gneeration of pre-judging elitists? :slight_smile:

16

Geez-O-Pete! Where have you been the last several years? Practically every other person you meet these days will have a tattoo! Stars, models, and the average, everyday person, tattoos are a VERY common thing. I have five of them myself, all hidden with long clothing, and I am probably the most straight-laced, boringly NORMAL person there is. The veterinary hospital I work in is staffed with 20 and 30 somethings, and I would say 85% of us have either a tattoo or a piercing (or both, or several, or several of both). This includes the doctors.

And JFTR, I have collected my tattoos over a period of 10 years now, and I don’t regret a one. I’ll never get rid of them.

17

Touche’ for you willgolfforfood :slight_smile:

Yours truly,
aha

18

Also I want to thank the posters so far they have really turned me around on this topic and I feel much better about it. Although I still have plenty of reservations.

I know that my son is virtually grown but I guess my concerns come under the heading of wanting only the best for him. And if that makes me pre-judging and opinionated then so be.

Yours truly,
aha

19

WHy pay for expensive laser removal when a much simpler, and cheaper, method suffices?

A three foot rod of metallic substance, typically ferrous, is heated by inserting the rod into an ancient heating device until the rod shows an amber color. The rod is then applied to the ‘affected area’.

In other words, stick a poker in the fireplace and put it on the tattoo. Leaves a nasty scar, which is typically uglier than the tattoo, but it’s cheaper than the laser.

I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.

20

Personally, I avoid intentionally giving myself permanent identifying marks like that. One question is if it stands for something, and if so, will you still want that symbol on your arm in 20 years?

Could just be an inventive abstract shape. Could be symbol of a rock band he’ll later get over.
Could be a gang sign.
Depends on what it is, eh?

I’m a member of the Monarchist political party.